Mason rubbed small circles on my back. “No. You can come without having sex. I mean, without having full intercourse.”
“Come?” I ventured a glance at him, my eyebrows raised.
“Yeah, it’s slang, I guess. When you climax or have an orgasm, we say you come. And don’t ask me why. I have no idea.”
“Hmmm. Is it different for a man and a woman? When they ... come?”
“In some ways, yes. I mean, in some obvious physiological differences, sure. As far as feeling, I couldn’t tell you. I’ve never had an orgasm as a woman.”
I giggled against his chest. “I guess not.”
“Rilla?”
“Hmmm?”
“Did you like my truck moves?”
My lips curved into a smile. “I think I did. But I do have a question. Do truck moves only happen in the truck, or do they translate to the sofa, as well?”
“Well, that’s a very good question.” Mason pretended to ponder it. “I’d say they do. They might be even better on the sofa.”
“I guess the only way to find out is to try it and see.” I nuzzled his neck.
Mason sighed. “The things I’m willing to do for research. Okay, I guess if I must, I must. But not tonight. Tonight, I’m going to buckle you into your seat, drive home and we’re both going to sleep. All experiments will have to wait until later.” He lifted my face to his and kissed me. “But I promise, they’ll all be worth the wait.”
IT’D BEEN A BITCH of a day.
The first problem was that the day had begun too damn early. Four-thirty this morning, my cell phone, which I kept next to the bed with the ringer on while Mom was in the hospital, rang loud and shrill. I sprang awake and fumbled to hit the answer button.
It was the nurse at the hospital, telling me that my mother was running a fever and there was some concern that she’d either contracted some kind of infection or was rejecting the stem cells. Either way, they strongly suggested that I come in as soon as I could.
I jumped out of bed and took a fast shower before heading out. Pausing in the hallway, I opened the door to Rilla’s room as quietly as I could. Still, she turned over in a rustle of sheets and comforter and sat up, blinking in the dim light from the hall.
“Mason?” she whispered. “Is everything okay? Piper—”
“She’s fine. Still asleep. Hospital just called. Something’s going on with Mom, so I’m going to run over there and see what’s happened.”
“Okay.” She tugged the sheet a little higher over her breasts, which made me smile since by now, I was intimately familiar with that particular set of ta-tas. And they were magnificent. Not too big, which would’ve looked funny on her slim body, but enough to fill my hands, and God, were they responsive ...
I gave my head a little shake. Not the time, dude. Pull it together. I couldn’t stop myself from walking the rest of the way into the room and bending to frame her face in my hands, kissing those sweet lips. “I’ll call you when I leave the hospital. Or I’ll text you if I’m going to be there for a while. If it gets too late, I might just go right over to the club from the hospital.”
“All right. Just keep me updated, okay?” Her voice was still husky with sleep, but I heard the worry. “And give Naomi my love. If you need me to come in with you, I can get Millie to watch Piper.”
“I’ll let you know.” I smoothed my hand over her hair. “Go back to sleep now. You can probably get in another hour or two before the pip squeak wakes up.”
With no little difficulty, I left her snuggled in bed and drove out of town, preoccupied with what I might find when I got to the hospital. My mother had sailed through the transplant process with relative ease, but the doctors had warned us that for several months after the procedure, she’d be at risk for infection, for picking up viruses and for the issues that accompanied rejection.
Mom was sitting up in bed eating toast when I arrived. She glanced at me with her eyebrow raised. “Well, good morning, son. What brings you in so bright and early?”
I sank into the ugly brown formaldehyde chair. “A nurse called this morning and said you were running a temp. They didn’t know what was causing it, but they thought I should come in.”
Mom waved one hand. “Oh, goodness. Yes, when they did their normal wake-me-up-to-check-me-out at three this morning, I had a slightly elevated temperature. The doctor’s keeping his eye on it, but they don’t think it’s anything serious. They ran tests, and all my counts look good. Well, for a woman who’s been through what I have, anyway.”
“Good.” I leaned over and snagged a corner of her wheat toast. “Well, since I’m here, I might as well have breakfast with you.”
I enjoyed my time with Mom, catching her up on everything at The Road Block and making her laugh with some new Piper stories. She raved about how much she appreciated Rilla’s frequent visits.
“She’s just the sweetest thing, Mason. I know I was a little concerned about you marrying her, but things seem to be going well.” She paused. “They are, aren’t they? Rilla’s seemed very content the last few weeks.”
I nodded. “Yeah, Mom. It’s all good. I wish she could settle things with her dad and her grandmother, but between us ...” I couldn’t help the smile that spread over my face as I thought about Rilla. “I’m happy. I think she is, too.”
“That does my heart good, Mason. I’ve worried about you, since Lu. You’re young, and you know the last thing she would’ve wanted was for you to mourn her forever. You deserve happiness. And love.”
I was about to answer her when my phone went off again. This time, the number was unfamiliar.
“Hello, Mr. Wallace. This is Safety First Alarm Company, and we wanted to alert you to the fact that we received notice of a break-in at your place of business this morning.”
I frowned. “A break in? Are the police there?”
“Sir, as a matter of course, we contact the police first and send them to the scene. They should be arriving shortly, if you’d like to meet them there.”
Shit. All I wanted to do was go home and catch another hour of sleep. Maybe give in to temptation and climb into bed with Rilla. Just for a snuggle or two; things were still moving slowly during our evening television make-out sessions, but we hadn’t been in bed together yet. Rilla was surprisingly adventurous for someone so inexperienced. I knew it was only a matter of time before neither of us could hold back anymore. But clearly that wasn’t going to happen this morning.
When I arrived at the club, two police cars were in the lot, and an officer stood outside the front door. I slammed the door of my truck and stalked over to meet him.
“Hey, Mason.” The cop, who I vaguely recognized as the brother of one of our waitresses, stuck out his hand. “Sorry to get you out of bed so early.”
I didn’t tell him he hadn’t been the one to have that honor this morning. “No problem. What’s going on?”
He smirked. “Well, it seems like your intruder triggered the motion detector. When we got here, we couldn’t find any evidence of a break-in. However, we were able to apprehend the suspect red-handed. He was wearing a mask, which should count in the evidence against him.”
I drew my brows together. “What the hell? Who broke in? What was he stealing?”
The door opened, nearly hitting me, and I stepped back out of the way. Another uniformed officer came out, followed by a man in coverall carrying some kind of cage.
“Mr. Wallace, meet your intruder.” He lifted the cage, and the bright eyes of a huge raccoon stared out at me. “We caught him digging into your pretzel supply. I did a little poking around, and I didn’t see any holes, anywhere he might’ve chewed his way in. Do you open the door to the supply room after dark?”
I nodded. “Yeah, it’s been known to happen. And last night, we had a late delivery. Truck had gotten held up out on 95, didn’t get here until after seven. I know they had the door propped while they were unloading.”
The first officer grinned. “That’s likely wh
at happened. Good news is, it didn’t look like he got into the beer.”
“Good to know. Last thing we need is a drunk raccoon running around.” I glanced into the trap again. “What’re you going to do with him?”
“Eh, he doesn’t appear to be rabid. We’ll test him just in case, but if he’s clean, we’ll release back into the wild.” The second cop winked at me. “With a stern warning to change his ways, of course.”
Once the police had left, along with animal control and the masked perp, I went into the club and got to work, cleaning up the mess the little fellow had made. He’d gone to town in the supply room, and it took a while to sweep up all the food and note what we needed to replace. By the time I was finished, it was after nine. I sighed, rubbing the back of my neck; I could go home, but I had to be right back here in about an hour to gear up for the lunch crowd. The early cooking crew would be arriving by then. It didn’t make sense to make that drive.
Rocky was still on limited hours, since his daughter had had some complications and was having a slow recovery. I’d told him to take today and catch up on his rest, so that he could start back fresh tomorrow. Now I was regretting my generosity.
My phone buzzed in my pocket, and I gritted my teeth. “What now?” When I saw Rilla’s pretty smile looking at me on the caller ID screen, I relaxed.
“Hey, darlin.’ I’m sorry I didn’t call or text. It’s been a shit storm of a morning.”
“Why? What happened? Is Naomi okay?”
I felt a stab of guilt for not updating her sooner. “Yeah, she’s actually fine. I think it was a false alarm. But then, speaking of false alarms, I got called to the club because of a break-in. Turned out to just be a raccoon, but I’ve been here cleaning up after it. I just finished, but I don’t think it makes sense to drive home.”
“Yeah, I agree. Anything I can do to help?”
I smiled. I loved that no matter what, Rilla offered to lend a hand. “Nah, I’m good. I’m going to be late tonight, though.” I paused. “I’ll miss you. I’ll miss our time on the sofa.”
“Me, too. But you’re off tomorrow, right? We’re taking Piper out to the Nelson’s.”
“You know it, honey. Can’t wait. Everything all right on the home front?”
“We’re all good here. Do what you need to. Call me if I can do anything to help. I’ll see you in the morning, I guess.”
There was something so sweetly intimate about these meaningless little conversations between us. Nothing important or earth shattering; just mundane stuff that made the world go ‘round. I’d forgotten how much I missed that. Rilla had a peace about her that centered me, calmed me. All the other shit going down in my life lost its importance when I was with her. I wasn’t exactly ready to tackle what that might mean. For now, I was just happy to let it be.
My day continued much the way it’d begun. Half the wait staff called in sick, thanks to some bug going around. Our beer delivery was delayed. The band who was scheduled to play the next night was dealing with a broken down bus outside Charlotte and wasn’t sure they’d make it in time for the show.
“When it rains, it pours.” Darcy slid her tray onto the bar. “Got two kids over there trying to pass phony IDs. I turned them down, but do you want to call the parents?”
I sighed. We didn’t get a lot of phony IDs here, unless they were kids from out of town. Burton was too small to get away with it. “Confiscate and threaten. If they give you any lip, send them over here to me and I’ll put the fear of God into them.”
“Yeah, they’re morons. One of the dickheads is in my daughter’s class. He didn’t think I’d recognize him? I’ll take care of it.”
I closed the doors at midnight and worked for another hour before I did one more walk-through to make sure we hadn’t let in any unwanted guests. It was just after one when I set the alarms and locked up.
I’d been up for nearly twenty-one hours. My eyes were gritty with the need for sleep, and I rolled down the windows and blared the radio to stay awake until I got into town.
My house was quiet, but Rilla had left on the light over the kitchen door. Another burned in the hallway, giving me just enough light to stumble up the steps and into my room. I didn’t even stop to check on Piper, or open Rilla’s door. I didn’t want to disturb her sleep, knowing she’d be up early to keep my daughter from waking me up.
With a twinge of lust-filled regret, I closed my bedroom door behind me. Our make-out sessions were leaving me with a perennial case of blue balls; Rilla hadn’t moved to touching me yet, and I didn’t want to push the issue. But God, I wanted her. I was holding onto sanity with the tips of my fingers.
I took a quick shower, just to get rid of the day, and pulled on a pair of boxers. I missed the days of sleeping nude, but with a daughter who liked to wake me up early in the mornings, I needed to be decent.
I was about to crawl between the sheets when I heard a sound at my bedroom door. It was a knock, just one quiet rap, but definitely a knock. I smothered a sigh of frustration and turned toward the door, expecting ... I didn’t know what. After today? Probably a puking kid who’d keep me up all night.
Except Piper didn’t knock. It had to be Rilla. I frowned and opened the door.
She stood before me in a long white cotton nightgown. Her blonde hair streamed down her back, and her feet were bare. She looked five years younger than she was. Large blue eyes shone at me in the glow of my bedside lamp.
“Rilla? What’s wrong?” I reached out to touch her cheek, running my fingertip over her soft skin.
“I ... can I come in?” She brought her thumb to the corner of her mouth and bit down on it, which I knew meant she was nervous about something. Inwardly, I groaned. Had she wrecked the car and wanted to confess? Or had something else happened today, something I didn’t really want to know about at nearly two in the morning?
“Of course.” I stood back and she stepped inside, pausing as I closed the door behind her. “What’s up, darlin’?”
She drew in a deep breath, her breasts swelling beneath the thin material of her nightie. I could see the outline of her nipples, and my cock stirred between my legs.
“I heard you come in. I was lying in bed, and I was thinking about you. I wanted to tell you ... I missed you tonight. On the sofa. It wasn’t the same without you.”
“I should hope not.” I took her hand in both of mine.
“Anyway, I was laying there, and I couldn’t sleep. I realized ...” She lifted her eyes to stare into mine. “I don’t want to wait anymore, Mason. We’re married. We, um, like each other. If you ... if you want me, I want to be with you. I want you to, um, make love to me.”
Suddenly, I wasn’t tired anymore.
But my gentleman training couldn’t be shut off. I cupped her cheek and moved my thumb over her lips. “Rilla, are you sure? I don’t want you to feel pressured. I promised you we’d move slow.”
“I think we have, Mason. We’ve been married three months, and we haven’t had a wedding night yet. That’s got to be some kind of record.”
Her humor was what sunk me. I could hear certainty in her voice, and it was all I needed to give me the big flashing green light I’d been waiting for.
Without saying another word, I bent and swept her into my arms, cradling her head on my chest. I bent to cover her lips with mine, sealing our mouths together in a kiss that was a promise I couldn’t quite speak yet.
Laying her on my bed, I stretched out next to her and propped my head on my hand. I could feel Rilla’s nerves buzzing, vibrating; she didn’t know what came next, and it scared her.
I skimmed one hand down her body, from her neck to just below her ribs. “Rilla. Darlin.’ It’s okay. It’s just you and me. Same as ... same as on the love seat. Same as in the front seat of my truck. It’s you.” I kissed her forehead. “And me. Nothing to be scared about. I promise. And if you feel like you need to slow us down, stop, you tell me. You’re in charge.”
She nodded, her head rubbing ag
ainst the pillow. “I don’t want to stop. But I don’t know what to do. I want to make you feel as good as you make me feel.”
I grinned. “Just do what comes naturally. Whatever feels right. If it’s a problem, I’ll tell you. But I can pretty much promise that as long as it’s your hands on my body, I’m not going to complain.”
She smiled. “Will you kiss me?”
“Baby, you can bet on it.” I slid my hand behind her neck and held her head up. My lips brushed over hers, and then I bent my head to take her mouth more fully. I sucked her bottom lip between mine, teasing it with my tongue until she made that small noise in her throat that drove me wild.
I rained kisses down her neck, to her collarbone, and then brought my hand up to palm her breast. Taking a minute to appreciate the weight of it in my hand, I lowered my mouth to surround her nipple, wetting the cloth that covered it.
Rilla cried out, combing her fingers through my hair and arching her back to bring me closer. Rampant desire pounded between my legs, and my dick ached with the need to take her.
I raised my head and took in a deep breath, trying to calm myself again. Slow, buddy. Slow but sure.
I reached for the hem of her nightgown and tugged it up, revealing the perfect pale skin of her legs. When I got to her hips, Rilla raised herself to free the material. My heart thudded as I saw her simple white underwear. I’d seen some sexy lingerie in my day. Maybe more than my share. But nothing had ever affected me like the sight of the white cotton that covered Rilla.
She pushed up on her elbows to sit, and I peeled off her nightgown the rest of the way, leaving her bare but for the panties. I nuzzled her tits, using my fingers on her nipples the way I knew drove her absolutely crazy. When I took one between my teeth, she made a sound almost like a growl. Her breath was coming in short bursts, and her hips had begun to rock against me.
I kept my mouth on her nipple as I lazily moved my hand down to cover the wet heat between her legs. At my touch there, she inhaled sharply and bucked to meet my fingers.
“Shh, honey. I’m going to make you feel good. Just relax.” I teased her with one finger over the cotton. It was saturated with the evidence of her desire, and it took every bit of tattered control within me not to push aside the material and drive myself into her.
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